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Hey guys, I have a problem with my HD500. I have barely used it and today when I turned it on, the Line 6 logo appears, the screen goes blank then the logo appears again. This happens over and over again. I can't get monkey to detect it either. Any help would be appreciated.

Re: Serious problem with HD500.
by Nick_Mattocks on 2010-11-24 12:06:00

Hi

I'm sorry you're having a problem.

I don't know what the cause is - it may be power related at a guess or maybe a corrupt preset (I haven't heard of that happening before, but trying to make an intelligent guess). However, you might be able to resolve the issue by starting the HD500 in test mode. Try holding the right D-Pad button down as you power on. If you can get in that way you might be able to get Monkey to see it and then re-flash the unit.

Thanks for the suggestion but no joy. The last time it was working I was editing a patch, for some reason the pan left wasn't working. I just assumed I had some settings wrong and gave it no thought. Next time I turned it on, this problem turned up. Hopefully the store wont give me any problems returning it. Thanks for your help mate.

Thanks again mate. Im waiting to hear back about returning it. I might try and exchange it for something else, this has really put me off getting another one.

Re: Serious problem with HD500.
by Nick_Mattocks on 2010-11-25 01:16:11

Yep - I can see why you'd think that way. It's disappointing when something fails - or at least that's what looks like has probably happened. The problem might be similar to the one in the other thread - I can't say for sure obviously, but it doesn't seem to be a recurring theme amongst users here and the thousands that have never been here, so I'd say if your unit is bad then it will probably be in a very small minority and you've just been unlucky. **** happens sometimes and that's just part of life unfortunately.

Personally, if it were me and being completely unbiased, I'd be hacked off if I were in your shoes, but I would probably give the HD500 as a concept the benefit of the doubt and try another. Your supplier will probably/hopefully be able to sort something out for you.

Anyway, whatever you decide to do, good luck and I hope you get something that works out for you.

Yeah these things happen, what can you do... The thing that bothers me is it came out of nowhere, im always highly suspicious of errors that aren't due to my mistakes and can't be fixed by a reinstall (quite surprised by that). Apart from this it had been exactly what I had been looking for, never considered getting one of the other units out there. If I do get another HD500 I might hold off on heavy use until a firmware update is released. Thanks again for your time on this dude.

Re: Serious problem with HD500.
by Nick_Mattocks on 2010-11-25 02:26:13

Yep - again - I hear you. I've had my HD500 since the end of June as a tester and whilst there have been a couple of older beta firmware updates that demanded I don't keep my presets, there hasn't been a problem like you've had, and that's the kind of thing we've tested for obviously amongst other things..

I can't comment on if or when there will be a firmware update except to say that with previous and other current Line 6 products the company has generally released some fixes and additions to the firmware as are appropriate and that I would expect a similar pattern to be followed with the HD range. There have been a few bugs noted and logged as you will see on this forum by Line 6 staff and some other hiccups have been reported by users. Line 6 engineers will be aware of these and will try to reproduce the errors before they can confirm and fix. Occasionally, problems are not reproducable which makes it more difficult to trace, track and resolve a problem. As your problem seems to be a relatively rare one with only one other similar case logged as far as I can see, Line 6 might be interested in having your specific unit back to check out exactly what's going on with your unit and to determine whether it's an isolated hardware fault or a software problem. If you're in the UK it might be worth ringing and speaking to one of the UK support reps - the US offices are on holiday until Monday. Check the Contact Us link at the foot of the page for the number.

Interesting, I've been looking through the forum and came across this http://line6.com/community/thread/46226 Post .12 and .14 sound much the same as what happened to me. Doesn't seem to be an explanation for this problem.

Re: Serious problem with HD500.
by Nick_Mattocks on 2010-11-25 02:33:01

Yes - some of that thread does seem to be appropriate/similar to your situation, but looking at the thread there appears to possibly be a couple of slightly different things going on for some contributors so that can be confusing when trying to diagnose a specific issue.

It seems that you experienced the same problem as I did. I created the thread "Pod hd 500 crashed". Meanwhile I had to return the Pod to the retailer on my own expenses and they will send it in for repair. They could not give me any information on how long it will take, but I will report here on the board.

I'm really not sure if I should keep the pod when I'm getting it back. I had the pod for about one months and had no problems till the crash a few days ago. So I'm pretty sure that it was no hardware fault (which I could have lived with - shit happens and this could be solved by exchanging the Pod). But all this happened when some weird things happened by using one sprecific patch. That means the software is that unstable that a simple glitch in the communciation between HD Edit or a preset can bring the Pod to a status that cannot be resolved by the user, even firmware update is no option. And exactly this is, what make me feel uncomfortable to ever use that Pod again as the problem has not been adressed by Line 6 in any way and I don't expect a software update that will solve that issue in the near future.

Curiously my original thread on this problem was closed by Line 6 now. No reaction from a Line 6 technician on my issue, no answer from support and now they closed my thread. A very strange approach how to treat their customers.

I already tried to make my point here about the HD500 series, when I got some sound issues, they told me to update the firmware, but it was already updated, then they told me it could be my playing style, then a few days after the same issue I got, not booting at all, and they kept telling me that I was an "isolated case". Go figure ?! The thing is after returning 2 units of the HD500 I ended up with a HD300, and now I got no issues no more, the UI on the 300/400 are much simpler in design, obviously has less bugs like that. And if you care about the FX LOOP grab the 400. The HD500 really doesnt worth the money for now, since the UI on the HD500 appears to have serious issues about the quality of software.

All in all I wouldnt go another route at that moment, cause Vox for example only got the Tonelab ST and it doesnt do it for me, maybe next year when they release the substitute for the LE series, but for now I got no option but Line6 again, Line6 knew when to release those HD Series, they marketing people should be good, so I got the cheapest one, the HD300 and I dont need now to feel that I spent a whole lot of money for something that could crash tomorrow with no warnings.

Sorry you've had the same problem, good to hear from someone in the same position though.

It looks like a patch glitch caused the initial crash. I was messing with the pan settings on a split path and it wasn't responding. The next time I switched it on the logo loop of death appeared. What doesn't make sense is that a firmware reinstall didn't fix it if it was a software glitch. Maybe a software glitch that caused a hardware error, I don't know.

I don't understand why they have closed your problem, in my opinion this is a major issue that needs addressing far more than the thousand dsp limit complaints. I've been in contact with the returns guy from the company I purchased it from. He told me he spoke to Line 6 and all they suggested was make sure you're running up to date firmware, they didn't ask for any details of what happened so I don't know how seriously they are taking it. As I said it's very worrying when errors pop up for no reason that can't be fixed by a reinstall, it does make you think twice about keeping it.

Re: Serious problem with HD500.
by Nick_Mattocks on 2010-11-26 04:21:53

Hi max_vie and TheEdge

I can't comment exactly on why your thread has been marked as 'assumed answered' either because I don't know, but it's possibly because myself and others had offered what looks like reasonable and hopefully helpful replies to your initial post. Your last reply was on 23 November. The moderators normally allow 48 hours before assuming the original poster has got a satisfactoty answer if they haven't replied. In this case it seems like that time frame was a bit shorter - maybe related to the number of staff in the office just before the Thanksgiving holiday and doing some pre-holiday tidying up. I can't see any reason why the support team would deliberately close a thread 'assumed answered' unless they thought it had been.

I can say that I personally acknowledge that there have been a couple or so of what appear to be similar issues for some users, because they've been reported publicly in this forum. What I cannot say is that the actual cause is definitely the same in every instance because there are a number of variables including with the greatest respect, the users themselves who may have been working differently to the others who seem to have experienced the same thing. The problem needs to be conclusively and reliably reproduced under scientific lab conditions before any fix can be offered. I can also say from my perspective as a POD HD forum participant that whilst there are undeniably a few users experiencing something here, that whatever that 'something' is seems to be occurring very little and therefore may be completely isolated in every case or it may be due to a common hardware malfunction in a very limited number of cases or it may be a software issue that only affects certain units when certain operations are carried out in exactly the right sequence to make the issue occur.

I am sure that Line 6 are aware that there have been a few of you who have had what on the face of it appears to be a similar issue and that they will be taking all and any valid issues very seriously as they want people to enjoy the gear they have bought and to have absolute confidence in it.

From the very few reports about this specific issue, I have to say it looks to date to be fairly isolated instances, and with that hopefully being the case the odds on you getting a second unit and it doing the exact same thing again are probably very high against that happening. There may be some instances where a computer has been connected when the problem has occurred that the computer itself may have caused the problem - and I'm not trying to be clever here, but where an external device of any kind is linked up, you cannot rule that out of the equation either.

The fact is that you have experienced a problem with a new HD500 unit and it isn't working, so all anyone can do is to get that resolved for you as quickly as is possible with either a repair or a replacement unit. I'm sorry you have experienced the problem you have got. Most of us who have the HD500 haven't had any real issues with it, but that still doesn't mean your issue doesn't need resolving because it does.

But to you guys that are going to exchange it, I recommend you think hard about the features of the 500 so that you can come to conclusion if a 300 or 400 wount fit your needs, I assure you you´ll never see that kinda software problem with those. After 2 units of the HD500, I´m now happy with the HD300. Again, good luck.

If the first unit yes, but in my case it even showed the L6 logo on trying to boot, only blue blank screen after 3 days of use. And before the experts asks, yes it has updated firmware, and no my playing technique is not that sloppy. The second one, yes updated firmware, I got every kinda hissing issue with the sounds, every patch sounded like POO, I can tell for sure cause the 1st unit before it dies it sounded like a dream! Without mention the 2nd unit has overheating issues, every 2-3 hours it rebooted with no warning. I felt like I could fry an egg over that thing. So I got tired of it, realised I dont need all that features, and for the price I got the HD300 for 290 on music123 after a discount off for my trouble. The 300/400 series seem much much more stable in terms of UI and software, taking place its a much more simpler design for the software on the 300/400. Obviously less bugs to work on. Yeah I believe that L6 will cover those bugs in future firmware releases, but I could not risk having a HD500 crashing over a gig. If I would like that to happen I would have taken my PC with Windows and GuitarRig4 to the gig so it can go blue screen as well.

Re: Serious problem with HD500.
by Nick_Mattocks on 2010-11-26 05:04:19

Yep - agreed good luck to anyone who has any kind of valid issue with their HD units as these guys do. Obviously i don't have the current sales figures available to me, but I can see as can you that the number of users who appear to have the same problem - and we don't know that it actually is the same problem (as with respect we only have anecdotal reports so far of problems rather than any scientifically accurate data - which is not to imply in any way that anyone is fibbing about their unit having a problem - why would they? I believe they have a problem, but I'm not in a position as none of us are to actually prove beyond a shadow of a doubt 100% that everyone actually does have exactly the same cause and effect here. They all have the same problem though in that they have an HD500 that doesn't currently work) - and who have reported it on this forum are relatively few, which does seem at the moment to be fairly isolated. These may not be the only people that have what appears to be this problem - some may just have gone back to their suppliers directly, but the ones reported here are the only ones we actually know about. There must have been a good few thousand HD500 units sold to mostly very happy punters since 30 September this year who would never feel the need to come near this forum for support. Obviously we don't know how many thousands that might be in two months, but if only three or four people or thereabouts have had a similar experience caused by what might or might not be the same thing that's a very low number whichever way you look at it, and to me that is a few relatively isolated and as yet unconfirmed cases of the same problem amongst several thousands of units in use - even if it were only a thousand units sold which I'm sure it isn't, a rate of 4 in a thousand with the same problem is 0.4% which is low. To you 4 in every thousand (if that's in any way a true reflection - which it almost certainly isn't) may not indicate 'fairly isolated' - it's reasonable to have a difference in perspective - no problem with that

In an ideal world no-one should ever have any kind of problem with any kind of equipment they have paid good hard earned money for, however it isn't an ideal world and **** happens now and again, and whilst no-one wants that, Line 6 do not have a reputation for leaving paying customers in the lurch when something has gone wrong and which is in no part due to the customer's use of the equipment. In my long experience of these forums and the Line 6 technical support team's responses - often to some very angry people - they have bent over backwards, and rightly so, to make the situation right for their customers. You can check that out if you like by going back through any of the forums from the Variax forum through the various amplifier support forums, the X3 Live support forum etc...

This weekend is a long holiday weekend in the US, so responses from Line 6 Support staff will not happen until Monday unless they decide to work over the weekend in their own time.

What I would say the important thing to do here is to get these users who have what looks to me like a totally valid problem of one sort or another with their individual HD500 units not functioning, to a situation where they have a working unit as they have paid for at the earliest opportunity, and I don't think anyone at Line 6 would disagree with that as they want their users to be happy - that is a definite.

Regards

Nick

Re: Serious problem with HD500.
by Nick_Mattocks on 2010-11-26 05:23:24

L6FANATIC wrote:

If the first unit yes, but in my case it even showed the L6 logo on trying to boot, only blue blank screen after 3 days of use. And before the experts asks, yes it has updated firmware, and no my playing technique is not that sloppy. The second one, yes updated firmware, I got every kinda hissing issue with the sounds, every patch sounded like POO, I can tell for sure cause the 1st unit before it dies it sounded like a dream! Without mention the 2nd unit has overheating issues, every 2-3 hours it rebooted with no warning. I felt like I could fry an egg over that thing. So I got tired of it, realised I dont need all that features, and for the price I got the HD300 for 290 on music123 after a discount off for my trouble. The 300/400 series seem much much more stable in terms of UI and software, taking place its a much more simpler design for the software on the 300/400. Obviously less bugs to work on. Yeah I believe that L6 will cover those bugs in future firmware releases, but I could not risk having a HD500 crashing over a gig. If I would like that to happen I would have taken my PC with Windows and GuitarRig4 to the gig so it can go blue screen as well.

I am interested here - my HD500 and a friend of mine has the same unit, run very cool with no hint of excess heat. It sounds like your second unit had a real hardware problem. Did you get any feedback as to what caused the first unit to die after only three days?

I'm in the UK and I guess the climate here is possibly cooler anyway than where you are, but nevertheless there shouldn't be that much of a difference in how hot the different units run. Now obviously I don't know enough about the power supply where you live or anything, but usually when something like this gets too warm as you're describing it indicates that something is getting too much power for some reason. Did your second HD500 come with the same type of power supply as the first one - i.e. was it the correct international use PSU that can be used on outlets supplying 100vAC to 240vAC and supplying 9v DC at 3amps? I can't help but wonder if there was a problem with the PSU rather than necessarily the HD500 itself - although the result was the same that your HD500 died. PSU issues could actually be responsible for a number of things that have been reported and particularly where the HD500 isn't able to boot fully. I am obviously guessing here, but i have an old POD 2.0 which has a PSU that outputs 9v AC at 1200mA and other Line 6 units that came with PSU's rated at 9vAC 2000mA output. Inevitably I managed to plug the older POD 2.0 PSU into my X3 Live once or twice and because the X3 Live wasn't getting quite enough current, occasionally it would do weird stuff and the PSU understandably got quite hot. When I realised I had got the wrong PSU in there, and swapped it for the higher rated one all returned to normal, so that's my reasoning behind thinking about possible PSU issues. Occasionally you can find that a supplier may have swapped out a PSU and replaced it in the box with a differently rated one for some reason or other best known to them - not saying that is what happened in your case, but it is a possibility nevertheless, but it would be more likely IMO that you just got a faulty PSU or a faulty HD500 and were unlucky enough to get two faulty units.

I dunno if the part numbers of both power supply units of the HD500s were the same. Here in Argentina we got a current of 120v, but I dont really think that was the issue, cause the 1st unit was not heating like the 2nd and the HD300 is as cool as well.

The 2 HD500s were a week of a issue. So I just returned it to the dealer for warranty.

I was so pissed off, cause I´ve bought from Music123, and the shipping+taxes to argentina overcomes the price of the POD itself. The 2 HD500 units came here for about 1100 dollars, and both let me down, so the HD300 came here for about 500 bucks. Even with warranty from Music123 I had to pay again for the taxes when it arrives to Argentina. Thats a bugger.

All in all, Im happy now with the HD300. Next year I´ll compare again the HD500 (hopefully new firmware and less issues) with the comming Vox Tonelabs that I expect to be released soon. But for now talking about Multi-FX units, we got not much options on the market but to buy the POD HDs. Again, L6 has a excellent marketing team. They knew exactly the timing to release those pods, when there´s lack of MFX on the stores and only old releases from vox boss and digitech. And the promo videos were a GASsing vitamin to all. Like the video says "If you can dream of a sound, you can reproduce it on the HD500". I dreamed of a dual-amp config with 63 reverb, tube compressor, equalizer, dual analog delays with mod and chorus. But when I tried to archieve something similar on the 500, I got the lack of DSP processor. Not saying I didnt liked the PODs, the HD300 is a bang for the buck, but I wont believe in L6 promo videos anymore in my life. Just utter GAS nonsense.

Re: Serious problem with HD500.
by Nick_Mattocks on 2010-11-26 05:51:09

Yes - I see your frustration with having to ship stuff in from the US and pay import taxes every time. That works out expensive if you had to pay twice - can't you get a refund on those void transactions? Seems a bit unfair if you can't. Anyhow, I'm pleased that eventually you got something which fits your exact requirements right now in the HD300 and FWIW I'm sorry you had to jump through hoops to get to that point. I'm sure no-one wanted that. the HD range is still in its infancy, and I would expect over the next few months or so we'll see it mature some more.

Nick

Re: Serious problem with HD500.
by GregEllington on 2010-11-27 06:14:55

I did have problems with my X 3 Live crapping out but after two repairs I think its OK. I hope that I don't encounter this with my HD 500. I did figure out that some bars and clubs might not be wired correctly. These units need clean power. Im thinking about getting a power conditioner! any suggestions???

I'm an owner of the POD HD500 just recently, and I love it, and I am also a professional programmer, and perhaps I can offer some context for this issue.

Most software is not perfect although we always strive to make it so. Fixing alleged bugs of this type can be speeded by the software design team being able to duplicate the bug in the lab reliably. This allows them to track it down to its source and then design a fix. So, if we gather all the tales to be told, and correlate the common elements, the software team may be able to spot a pattern in the behavior which will help them.

Since the HD500 uses a dynamically allocated resource scheme, I can guess that there need to be sanity checks on the patches as they are formed and/or as they are loaded or read to protect the scheme from becoming corrupted, which appears to have occurred in the problematic workflow.

So, my guess is that the way to fix this in the short term is to find a way to clear the patch memory in the device rather than reflash it, as flash memory should be protected from damage of this kind. If there is a way for the user to clear the patch memory, and then reload it from a backup, that may at least get your machine going while the Line 6 team designs a fix for the firmware that produced this alleged bug.

Just educated guesses. I am in no way associated with the Line 6 design team and I don't speak for them, and in fact the things that I have suggested may in fact have no relation to reality. Just trying to help.

It definitely has to be sent in for repair. I haven't heard anything as far as what causes this, nor has there been any answers given to the other people who've had this problem. Looks like a send it back, problem solved response. I'd be willing to put money on this happening again and to more people.

I've had my hd500 since XMas. Has been working fine until I installed a new update for hd edit and the flash memory two days ago. Now I have the same problem you had. After installing the updates everything was working fine. I did not even change or download a single tone. When I turned the unit on a couple days later all I get is the line 6 logo and a black screen every five seconds. Line 6 Monkey won't even register that the hd500 is connected anymore unless I hold the right arrow down when powering the unit up. I've tried updating flash memory then and it only goes to an unconnected state again. The only thing that had broken it up is holding down the right arrow during startup gets me to a screen with this:

pedal cal -

buttons -

pots --

encoders -

flash -

SDRAM -

I can calibrate the pedals from this screen as it states in the HD500 Advanced User's Guide, but that's all I can do. What if anything else can I try to do except return the unit? This is a major problem.

beginning to think (because of different problems I seem to keep having with their gear) ...switch over to another company that puts out more reliable gear without testing it first instead of using their pundits / lab rats (.i.e. us) to check it?

I just figured it out. I have a Variax 500 and throughout this whole ordeal I have had it hooked up to my pod hd500 with a VDI cable. I never imagined that could be an issue. After putting my pod hd500 back in the box and putting it in my car thinking I would have to return it, I hooked my variax with VDI cable up to my old pod x3 live. Unbelievably the same thing happened that had never happened before--nothing buy a flashing line 6 logo. Now I'm really frustrated (I'm keeping this G rated). I don't know how I thought of it, but I thought to unhook by variax and everything worked perfectly. I got my pod hd500 out of my car and out of the box and tried starting it up without the variax hooked up and everything worked perfectly including hd edit software on my computer. I think you have to unhook the variax before starting up the pod hd500 after you perform an update. The variax works great with the hd now. I don't know if this is what the edge and others are experiencing, but hopefully this helps others.

I think the pods have some power supply issues when starting up after an update or rebooting. I would recommend to all who are having issues whether you have a variax or not to remove all connections other than the power supply when you turn the unit on after an update. This goes for even an update of hd edit or a driver. Set the ground/lift to ground and unplug anything that could possibly take power away from the unit like headphones or any guitar. Then start up the unit by adding the power cord. The reboot will take a couple of seconds and you should be good to go. If this solves the problem, I would highly recommend that Line 6 put either on the download page on their website or as a final message when you perform the updates that if you have problems when starting up the unit afterwards that you remove all connections and then start it up again. After that initial startup after the update, it should not need the "disconnect everything when you start it up again" treatment.

Re: Serious problem with HD500.
by jeremyswings on 2011-04-07 09:48:03

I was experiencing the same problem with mine. It crashed a time or two while I was editing a tone on my computer, I was a little frustrated with the buggy software but didn't think anymore of it. I eventually got it to do what I wanted, I played for an hour or two, then powered everything down and went to bed.

The next night I plugged it in and it would display the line6 splash screen, then go blank, then the splash screen again. It would keep repeating this way for as long as I left it on. I tried connecting it to my computer, but it wasn't recognized. After searching the forums, I found that holding down the right arrow of the d-pad would go to a calibration and self check mode. I could do that and I went through the self check procedure, everything checked out. I turned it off, turned back on and same problem. Then I tried holding the down arrow on the d-pad. This put it in "flash update" mode. I tried connecting it to my computer again. This time line6 monkey saw it and I was able to flash the memory. That worked. I restarted it. Same problem. I decided at that point there wasn't anything else that I could do, so I called up Line6.

While waiting for them to answer (about 21 minutes), I kept messing with the pod. I still had it plugged into my computer and I tried opening the HD500 Edit software. It didn't seem to pick it up immediately but after hitting a bunch of different directions on the d-pad _it seems like left is what did it_ I see the HD500 edit wanting to connect to the pod and then I see the "Son of Plexi" tone up on the pod's LCD. The program gave me a prompt for whether or not to import the tones, I selected "yes".

It seemed to be loading everything up normally til about 97% then the pod turned off and restarted. I thought "oh crap, here we go again." But fortunately it came back online gave me the "device discovered would you like to import tones?" prompt. This time I selected "no". So far everything seems to be working. I am writing this imediately after it happened though, so "working" might be short lived.

When I talked to Line6 tech support I was told that they have seen this happen where pods will get into this loop. The guy said that putting it safe mode (right arrow) and flashing the memory should fix it. He also said that once you break it out of the loop, it shouldn't happen again.

I'll see how it goes.

Re: Serious problem with HD500. solved for while
by EliezyGuittar on 2011-04-23 13:47:33

Re: Serious problem with HD500. solved for while
by memodriver on 2011-04-23 20:14:19

Hey mans whats DSP?

Re: Serious problem with HD500. solved for while
by EliezyGuittar on 2011-04-23 22:23:49

so, DSPthe line6 offers up a whole lot of sound possibilities in POD HD500, and it can take some serious Digital Signal Processing (DSP) to run these goodies. Rather than limit your creative potential with fewer Models or signal routing options, we chose to implement a “Dynamic DSP” system, which dynamically assigns DSP resources to accommodate your tone configurations. When creating a tone that utilizes several heavy-hitting DSP Models, it is possible to surpass the amount of processing power available. In these cases, you’ll see the DSP LIMIT REACHED indicator appear, and the current Model is bypassed to allow your tone to remain active.Currently selected Model is automatically bypassed, with DSP message shown here DSP Limit alert is temporarily displayedSignal Flow View - displaying DSP Limit alertIn the above example, trying to change the Model for a 2nd Amp placed our tone over the DSP limit. Therefore, the DSP LIMIT REACHED message is shown temporarily, and the Amp B Model we selected is automatically bypassed, as indicated by the DSP Over message. When the DSP Limit is reached, you have a few options to free up DSP resources.• Try using different Amp Models. Some of the HD Amp Models require more DSP power than others, so try switching to a different Amp Model.• Use only one Amp Model rather than two.• Try toggling Amp and/or FX Models “Off” or set the Block’s Model to “None,” (see “FX Blocks” on page 3•1). Some FX types, such as Pitch Shifters and Reverbs, utilize DSP more heavily.Note: Setting an Amp or FX Block to “None” more greatly reduces the Block’s DSP usage than toggling its Model to “Off.”• Once you’re happy with your customized tone, save it so that you can recall it later.

I dunno if the part numbers of both power supply units of the HD500s were the same. Here in Argentina we got a current of 120v, but I dont really think that was the issue, cause the 1st unit was not heating like the 2nd and the HD300 is as cool as well.

The 2 HD500s were a week of a issue. So I just returned it to the dealer for warranty.

I was so ****** off, cause I´ve bought from Music123, and the shipping+taxes to argentina overcomes the price of the POD itself. The 2 HD500 units came here for about 1100 dollars, and both let me down, so the HD300 came here for about 500 bucks. Even with warranty from Music123 I had to pay again for the taxes when it arrives to Argentina. Thats a bugger.

All in all, Im happy now with the HD300. Next year I´ll compare again the HD500 (hopefully new firmware and less issues) with the comming Vox Tonelabs that I expect to be released soon. But for now talking about Multi-FX units, we got not much options on the market but to buy the POD HDs. Again, L6 has a excellent marketing team. They knew exactly the timing to release those pods, when there´s lack of MFX on the stores and only old releases from vox boss and digitech. And the promo videos were a GASsing vitamin to all. Like the video says "If you can dream of a sound, you can reproduce it on the HD500". I dreamed of a dual-amp config with 63 reverb, tube compressor, equalizer, dual analog delays with mod and chorus. But when I tried to archieve something similar on the 500, I got the lack of DSP processor. Not saying I didnt liked the PODs, the HD300 is a bang for the buck, but I wont believe in L6 promo videos anymore in my life. Just utter GAS nonsense.

Nice handle;-) I am assuming you are using an inverter? Argentina power is 220 but in your post you say you have 120. The HD 500 power supply seems to be very finnicky. I have read where others have tried to power the HD 500 with the power lines in a pedal snake and it won't work.

It also seems you are getting ripped off from customs. I know the import tuties are high but should not be 100%. For the prices you paid in customs you could have flown to Miami and bought at GC;-)

I agree that the pelotudos in marketing at Line 6 went a bit too far with the hype;-)

I had an issue with my X3l that I took with me to Buenos Aires last year. I stayed in BA for 2 months after a month in Sao Paulo so couldn't go 3 months without playing. I stayed in an apartment downtown and all the power was 220. I bought some crappy little transformers locally and they would give me issues with the X3l.

good evening, I have a little problem withthe connectionbetween in my computer and my podhd500, fromtime to timeand mycomputerdid notrecognize the device,I havereloadedthedriverandinstalls fine, but I do notrecognize the connectionof the device, usbcableis fine,itmakes aweekactualizemypodhd500firmware, I can do torestoremy connection andmypodhd500to edit?

Re: Serious problem with HD500.
by DeanDinosaur on 2012-11-08 16:44:33

Try using a differenct USB slot in your computer it might ask you to re-install the driver but that would be a good sign as it means that the compuer actually sees it.

I triedon allthe PC's USBports, but I do notrecognize the device,andhave placedother things likecameras, memory, smartphones, andwell recognized.i think it has somethingto do withthe lastdrivertodownloaditpodhd500